Archive for month: January, 2015

Thank you SO MUCH to everybody who made Day 1 of the Boulder Mini Maker Faire so astoundingly great! We saw some really special things today, from a child who learned to use a cordless drill while building junk catapults with Mackintosh Academy, to strangers standing in line for a food truck who found they’re both doing ed-tech startups and decided to collaborate, to teachers who coded for the first time at Sparkfun’s Digital Sandbox workshop at the Innovation in Education Summit. What a day! And we can’t wait to see you all tomorrow (don’t worry, you’ll be home waaay before kickoff…)

Are you at the Faire yet? Probably not, but if you’re a teacher, 10:00am today starts your chance to earn maybe the funnest CE credits this side of anywhere! Click to download the program and final schedule for the Innovation in Education Summit, below. Or scroll and put on your bifocals to see what’s up today and tomorrow!

What do you know about open source software? Heck, even if you’re not a hacker or developer active in the open-source community, you probably know it has something to do with publicly sharing code — you put your software online and contribute tweaks and twists in a crowdsourced way to things that other people have put online. That’s open source: nobody owns it and you’re free to do with it what you please.

Sewing, weaving, painting, woodworking, cake decorating, gardening, cooking, jewelery, photography and much, much more — pick an online class from Craftsy and it’s yours free, just for being savvy enough to find this post! Craftsy is also one of the essential sponsors of the Boulder Mini Maker Faire, this Saturday and Sunday at the Boulder County Fairgrounds! (Tickets cheaper in advance at the link below.)

“I get twenty-one-year-old seniors who can code, write anything for CNC, but don’t know whether to use a screwdriver or a hammer in the shop,” says Jenny Blacklock, teaching associate professor of mechanical engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. Along with Greg VanderBeek (ME) and BJ Titchenal (Ne’er-Do-Well), Blacklock runs Coalesce, a design, fabrication and maker education space in Boulder, CO.

Have you ever built a deck or a chicken coop or a bookshelf? How about the great and varied tchotchkes of 3D printing? Or bigger stuff like a shed, a boat or a house? Generally you have to draw something before you make something — be it on a napkin or CAD. But so many of us don’t draw; we don’t give ourselves permission to be creative in that way, saying we’re bad at it or we don’t know what we’re doing (sound like math to anyone? But that’s another story…). And if you do draw, then dollars to donuts that unless you’re a trained professional you’re terrified to take your doodles or plans or graphic ideas to the land of 0’s and 1’s that is your computer.

It’s good to have friends. Here at Maker Boulder, we need all the friends we can get. And one friend who has been especially friendly is MakerBot — you know, the 3D printing juggernaut that offers desktop 3D printers and seamless softwares that make 3D printing actually work (as opposed to, you know, the DIY printer that’s sitting in my garage right now half built…).

Are you making at this weekend’s Boulder Mini Maker Faire? If so, join us after load-in on Friday evening for a Maker Meet and Greet (and Hopefully Dance Party) at TinkerMill, Colorado’s biggest makerspace, courtesy of main sponsor, SparkFun, catering by Spice of Life, and two (2! Yay!) kegs provided by Fiction Beer.

We at Maker Boulder would love to send a huge shout-out to Daniel Zacek at 9-1-1 Labs for his astounding help with the Boulder Mini Maker Faire! From tech to design to making and printing “passports” that mini makers can get stamped at the Faire, Daniel and 9-1-1 have been essential to making the magic happen.